2 comments:

I read somewhere that the original script was a straight horror sequel called "The Brain of Frankenstein," but that it morphed into a comedy when A&C were signed on.

Boris Karloff posed for a publicity photo that showed him looking at a poster advertising this movie. The story goes that, when he was asked to do it, he said, "OK, as long as I don't have to watch the film itself." But he later co-starred with Bud and Lou in two horror comedies, and, afaik, he got along well with them.

Mixing horror and comedy was not new in 1948. The Three Stooges and the Bowery Boys often got mixed up with mad scientists and their monsters. Bob Hope had done "The Ghost Breakers." Olsen and Johnson had made "Ghost Catchers," and A&C themselves had already done "Hold That Ghost." But, being at Universal, Abbott and Costello could meet the "famous" monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein. The idea worked so well it was repeated several times, with them meeting the Mummy, Invisible Man, and Jekyll & Hyde.

I remember reading that myself, TC, and I've seen the Karloff photo you mention. Boris claims he turned down the role because he couldn't bear to see the Monster portrayed as a figure of fun, but I'd be surprised if he was asked as he was getting on a bit, age wise. Actually, the Universal trio are treated pretty straight so his reservations were unfounded. The Ghost Breakers is an absolute classic - watched it again only a few weeks ago.

STUDIO 77

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artiston various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artistandspot illustratoron pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

ForMARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as arestoration artistfor MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

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